32 Facts About Brno

Brno is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic.

Brno is the former capital city of Moravia and the political and cultural hub of the South Moravian Region.

Brno basin has been inhabited since prehistoric times, but the town's direct predecessor was a fortified settlement of the Great Moravian Empire known as Stare Zamky, which was inhabited from the Neolithic Age until the early 11th century.

Brno was first mentioned in Cosmas' Chronica Boemorum dated to the year 1091, when Bohemian king Vratislav II besieged his brother Conrad at Brno castle.

However, Brno was the official seat of the Moravian Margraves, and later its geographical position closer to Vienna became important.

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In 1243 Brno was granted the large and small city privileges by the King, and was thus recognized as a royal city.

Brno was besieged in 1428 and again in 1430 by the Hussites during the Hussite Wars.

Brno was besieged by the Prussian Army in 1742 under the leadership of Frederick the Great, but the siege was ultimately unsuccessful.

In 1777 the bishopric of Brno was established by the Catholic Church; Mathias Franz Graf von Chorinsky Freiherr von Ledske was the first Bishop.

Brno itself was not involved with the battle, but the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte spent several nights here at that time, and again in 1809.

Around 1900 Brno, which consisted in administrative terms only of the central city area until 1918, had a predominantly German-speaking population, as opposed to the suburbs, which were predominantly Czech-speaking.

Brno is located in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic, at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, and there are several brooks flowing through it, including the Veverka, Ponavka, and Ricka.

Brno is situated at the crossroads of ancient trade routes which have joined northern and southern European civilizations for centuries, and is a part of the Danube basin region.

Legally, Brno is a statutory city, consisting of 29 administrative divisions known as city districts.

Brno is divided into 29 administrative divisions and consists of 48 cadastral areas.

City districts of Brno vary widely in their size by both population and area.

Brno is the home to the highest courts in the Czech judiciary.

Brno experienced its largest increases in population during the 19th century at the time of the Industrial Revolution, and in 1919 due to a merger with surrounding municipalities.

Since the 1990s Brno has experienced a great cultural "rebirth": facades of historical monuments are being repaired and various exhibitions, shows, etc.

Brno has hundreds of historical sights, including one designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and eight monuments listed among the national cultural heritage of the Czech Republic.

Brno Ossuary is the second largest ossuary in Europe, after the Catacombs of Paris.

Brno is home to a functionalist Synagogue and the largest Jewish cemetery in Moravia.

Theatre World Brno is another international festival held annually in the city, in which Brno theatres and the city centre stage around 100 performances by national and foreign ensembles.

Brno has the oldest theatre building in Central Europe, the Reduta Theatre on Zelny trh .

The first theatre plays in Brno probably took place in the 1660s in the City Tavern, today's Reduta Theatre; however, the first theatre with boxes was built in this complex in 1733.

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The biggest public library in Brno is the Moravian Library, the second largest library in the Czech Republic with around 4 million volumes.

The biggest gallery in Brno is the Moravian Gallery, again the second largest institution of its kind in the Czech Republic and the biggest in Moravia.

Brno has a Technical Museum, the largest in Moravia and one of the largest in Czech Republic.

In 2016 the Vasulka Kitchen Brno was established in Brno for research, artistic experiment and informal education in the field of new media art.

Viktor Kaplan, inventor of the Kaplan turbine, spent nearly 30 years at the German Technical University in Brno, which ceased to exist in 1945, its property transferred to Brno University of Technology.

Since 1968, Brno has been a permanent fixture on the European Touring Car Championship series.

Today, Brno is a transnational railway hub, with nine stations for passenger traffic.